Beneath the Surface
by Sand-wolf579
Summary: Cavendish frequently got frustrated and annoyed with his partner. But when Dakota got turned into a child, Cavendish saw a side of his friend that he hadn't noticed before, and it worried him.


**A/N: I don't know if anybody else noticed, but in the episode** _ **Backward to School Night**_ **it kinda seems like the adults-turned-children still keep some of their basic instincts from when they're adults. For example, the kids' teacher is still obsessed with her desk. Melissa's dad briefly plays with a fireman's axe** _ **.**_ **Zack's mom sits at the sink and plays with the stream of water, which is basically a three year old's equivalent of washing their hands, which surgeons need to do quite often.**

 **Anyways, I got to thinking, why don't we see Dakota reacting to his most basic instincts? And then I wondered just what said instincts would be, and thus this story was born.**

* * *

Cavendish had never really considered himself a people person. If somebody did something annoyed him, he didn't bother to show his displeasure. If somebody frequently behaved in a childish, annoying, and unprofessional manner, then Cavendish quickly began to dislike them, despite the good traits they may or may not have.

Cavendish knew that he was often unfair towards people. That he let his annoyances towards one's behavior turn into loathing for the individual themselves. Normally, this didn't matter all that much, as Cavendish was rarely around any individual for extended periods of time. Except, of course, for his partner.

Cavendish had completely loathed Dakota for those first few weeks that they worked together. Cavendish had been set on proving his worth to the Bureau of Time Travel, to show all of those doubters, including himself, that he was capable of accomplishing more than anybody gave him credit for. So when it became clear on that first day of working together that Dakota just wasn't as passionate about the job as he was, and he had a tendency to goof off and not take things seriously, Cavendish had taken it personally. For weeks he had overlooked how kind-hearted, loyal, intelligent, and, dare he say, responsible Dakota could be sometimes.

Yes, Dakota still had his unbearable moments that made Cavendish feel like tearing his hair out, but for the most part they had grown to be quite the team. And then, of course, Dakota just had to go and pull a stunt like this and Cavendish was reminded all over again why he had first despised him.

The night had been just a complete and total disaster. Cavendish had been in a horrible mood to begin with (it just hadn't been a very good day), and it seemed as though every little thing that Dakota did only made it worse.

First off, Dakota had, once again, failed to pick up his half of the check when they went out to eat... _again._ Cavendish knew that this shouldn't be that big of a deal, but it annoyed him far more than he knew that it should. Dakota was a grown man. He had his own income. He should not have to leech off of other people because he never seemed to have cash on hand. Cavendish had no idea what Dakota did with all his money, but he knew for a fact that the majority of it did not go towards food. And with how often Dakota found himself craving unhealthy food for no particular reason, it truly did feel like a burden to Cavendish. He didn't want to continually pay for Dakota's food as though he was his father instead of his partner, but Cavendish also didn't want his friend to starve.

Though it had been annoying to, once again, pick up the check for Dakota, Cavendish probably would have gotten over it in just a few minutes if Dakota hadn't just mucked things up even more from there. Dakota had stolen from Brick and Savannah, and he showed no recreated in doing so. He messed around with time travel devices that he didn't understand, thus turning himself and four other adults into three year old children.

And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, child Dakota had grabbed the broken pieces of the time regressor ray, and he _refused to give it back!_

It astounded Cavendish how Dakota's younger self had so much energy. Cavendish had been chasing the boy around the school, which wasn't the least bit enjoyable. He needed to fix the age regressor before something bad happened, but Dakota refused to sit still for two seconds to allow him to even get a good look at the pieces. How was it that as an adult Dakota would find any excuse that he could to be as lazy as possible, but as a child he resembled an unstoppable ball of pure energy.

Cavendish was beginning to wonder if Dakota's energy levels were based entirely on what was most inconvenient for Cavendish to deal with at the moment.

Cavendish didn't know how long he chased Dakota around. He was sure it was just a few minutes, but it felt like much longer than that. It felt like Dakota was running through all the hallways that he had access to, and the only reason why he wasn't going into the rooms was because the doors were closed and he was too short to reach the blasted handles. Eventually though Dakota found an open door and he immediately ran inside, and Cavendish tiredly followed along behind him. He was just about finished with dealing with the situation, and he was just moments away from losing his temper at the small child that he was chasing.

Fortunately, that wasn't necessary.

"Hey, Cavendish." The time traveler didn't think he had ever been so relieved to hear Milo Murphy's voice. "How's the device going?" Milo knelt down and gently grabbed Dakota's shoulder's to keep him from running off again.

"It's not." Cavendish huffed as he was finally able to snatch his hat back from young Dakota. "I've been too busy chasing after him to even get a good look at all the pieces I need to put back together."

"Oh, well, do you want us to watch him?" Milo picked up Dakota, who had begun struggling.

"I can't ask you to do that." Cavendish said. He knew all too well that Dakota could be a handful on his own, and Milo and his friends already had four other children that they were watching.

"You're not asking, I volunteered." Milo reminded him cheerfully. "And really, it's no trouble. We got the others to calm down for a few minutes with a story. Maybe he'll like it too." Milo gestured behind him with his available hand towards where Melissa was reading to their children parents. She and Zack looked bored and tired, but the children were behaving themselves. Maybe there was something to this idea after all.

"Well, I suppose this might work." Cavendish considered. "But if you need anything, I'll just be over there." Cavendish pointed towards the other side of the library, where there were quite a few desks. He knew that putting the time regressor back together could take longer if there were potential distractions, but it didn't feel right to just leave Dakota with Milo and his friends. Especially when they were already outnumbered by small children. This way, Cavendish could work on the device, and still keep an eye and an ear on the children, just in case they might need some adult supervision.

"Sounds good." Milo adjusted his grip on Dakota, who had started trying to grab his hair. "Hey, do you want to go listen to a story?"

"No!" Dakota proclaimed cheerfully. Cavendish had quickly learned that 'no' was young Dakota's favorite word, though he wasn't so sure that the boy even knew what it meant.

"I guess I'll take that as a 'yes' then" Milo shrugged and carried Dakota back to the others where he sat him down next to the boy that was probably Milo's father.

Cavendish watched the children for a few moments, just to make sure that Dakota was going to behave himself. Everything looked alright. Every once and awhile Dakota would fidget or shout out a word over Melissa's reading, but other than that he seemed fine. So Cavendish made his way towards the desks. The sooner he fixed the age regressor the better. Hopefully he would be able to finish it before the children got bored of the story and started acting out again.

Cavendish wasn't familiar with this particular device, so he spent quite some time just looking it at, trying to figure out which pieces go where. By the time Cavendish thought he had figured something out and was getting ready to actually begin putting the darned device back together again a few of the children began to scream at each other, breaking his focus. And, wouldn't you know it, one of the screaming children was Dakota.

Of course he was.

Cavendish groaned and placed the pieces on the table. He then rushed to help the teenagers take care of the situation before Dakota and the little girl with a ponytail screamed all of their ears off. Cavendish was just about to ask what the problem was when he saw exactly what was going on. Dakota was pulling at the poor girl's ponytail, and she, in turn, was hitting his arms in an attempt to get him to stop.

"What are you _doing?_ " Cavendish grabbed his de-aged partner as Zack stepped forward and picked up the ponytailed girl. "You know better than to do something like this." Cavendish scolded. Honestly, he didn't actually know if Dakota truly _did_ no better than to pull some poor girl's hair at this age. Even as an adult Dakota frequently seemed to forget what personal space was. But regardless of the age, everybody should know that if you're doing something that is causing somebody to scream in reaction, then you shouldn't be doing it.

Dakota didn't answer, not that Cavendish had expected him to. The boy had stopped crying, but he was still visibly upset, and he seemed confused, as though he didn't understand why Cavendish was angry or why the girl seemed upset with him. Cavendish was glad that he wouldn't have to deal with young Dakota for much longer, because he really didn't want to try to explain to the child why it was wrong to pull one's hair.

"Uh, maybe we should keep these two separated for a bit." Zack suggested as he awkwardly held the girl, who had begun to cry into his shoulder.

"Yes, that would probably be best." Cavendish muttered begrudgingly as he glared at Dakota in annoyance. He needed to focus on fixing this mess, and every step of the way Dakota seemed to be making things worse. It was exhausting.

With Dakota still in his arms Cavendish made his way back to the table where he had been trying to work. Cavendish knew that if he put Dakota on the floor, he would just run off again, so he sat him down on desk next to him. Cavendish then took off his hat and handed it to the child, who took it and happily began to wave it around. With Dakota taken care of, Cavendish got back to work on the age regressor ray.

It took him longer to fix the device than he would have liked, because he wasn't completely focused on it anymore. Every thirty seconds or so Cavendish had to turn towards Dakota just to make sure he was okay. With every glance Cavendish found himself relaxing just a little bit more. Each time Cavendish looked, there was Dakota sitting in the middle of the desk, playing with his hat. After checking on Dakota a dozen or so times Cavendish figured it would be alright if he waited just a bit longer to check on him. After all, Dakota hadn't moved from that spot in a few minutes. What were the chances of him deciding to do so in the next minute or so?

Cavendish should have known not to gamble on Dakota's unpredictable behavior.

"Dakota!" Cavendish felt like his heart stopped when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dakota crawling towards the edge of the desk. Cavendish dropped the age regressor ray, accidentally cutting his finger on one of the wires in his rush to grab Dakota before he got hurt. Cavendish wasn't nearly quick enough, and he watched horrified as Dakota fell off the desk and hit his head on the ground.

"Dakota!" Cavendish hurriedly knelt down next to his partner, who just looked extremely dazed. Dakota wasn't crying or even whining at all, but Cavendish knew that he was hurt, because he couldn't imagine anybody hitting their head like that and _not_ being injured. "Are you alright?" Cavendish brushed the hair away from Dakota's face and tried to get a good look. Dakota didn't look hurt, but Cavendish was sure that, at the very least, a bruise would eventually show up.

"Are you guys okay over here?" Milo made his way towards them, looking concerned. "What happened?"

"He fell and hit his head." Cavendish said. "I think he's hurt, but he's not crying."

"Well, kids can be pretty resilient sometimes." Milo pointed out as he took off his backpack and knelt down next to them. He began digging through the bag. "But it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Indeed." Cavendish frowned slightly when Dakota whimpered and grabbed Cavendish's hand. Being more gentle than Cavendish had ever expected from his partner, Dakota ran his hand over the small cut on Cavendish's finger.

"N-no." Tears gathered in Dakota's eyes. "No, no, no, no, no!" It was only at this moment that Dakota began to cry and scream. Dakota clung to Cavendish's arm and refused to let go. " _No!"_

Cavendish tried to pull away from Dakota's grip, but the child was stronger than he looked. "What is wrong with him?" Even under normal circumstances Cavendish had a hard time understanding why Dakota did the things that he did, and this was most certainly not a normal circumstance.

"I think he's worried about you." Milo took a small band-aid out of his bag and offered it to Dakota. "Here. Why don't you see if this will help?"

Dakota pouted, but he let go of Cavendish to grab the band-aid. Dakota bit his lip and very sloppily put it on Cavendish's finger. It was probably the worst bandaging job that Cavendish had ever seen, but Dakota seemed satisfied with it. The boy immediately calmed down, though he still didn't seem interested in moving from Cavendish's side any time soon. Not that Cavendish even considered letting Dakota out of his sights until he was back to normal again.

"Do you want us to watch him again for a few minutes?" Milo asked again.

"No." Cavendish said without hesitation as Dakota snuggled up against his side. "We'll be alright." He was almost finished fixing the age regressor ray, he just needed another few minutes. He could watch Dakota for that long. Milo didn't look completely convinced, but he didn't argue with him. The teenager just returned to his friends.

Cavendish gently took Dakota into his arms and lifted him up. Cavendish sat back down on the chair at the desk, and held Dakota on his lap. The boy didn't seem to mind that Cavendish was holding him in place. If anything, Dakota seemed relieved that he was so close to him.

Cavendish worked one-handed on the age regressor, as he needed his other hand to hold Dakota where he was. Even so, it only took him a few more minutes to finish fixing the ray, which had a much more simple design than he would have expected.

"It's done." Cavendish called out to the children. The three teenagers all groaned in relief.

"Finally." Zack picked up his mother before she started to climb up the bookcase. "I'm telling you guys, I'm never going to have kids. This is just exhausting."

"Oh, don't say that." Milo said as he picked up the little ponytailed girl and then held his father's hand with his available hand. "You're still young. I'm sure you'll change your mind in another five to ten years, you know, when we would actually _have_ kids."

"If you say so." Melissa, who had already been holding her father, pulled her hair away from his grabby hands.

""Come on, we must bring your baby parents back to the classroom." Cavendish said. He didn't believe that the children would remember what had happened when they were back to their adult bodies, and Cavendish didn't want to cause any unnecessary confusion by turning them back to normal in a different location than when they had been turned in the first place.

Milo took the lead as they made their way back to the classroom, with Zack right behind him. Cavendish went a little slower than he normally would, because he didn't want to jostle Dakota too much. When Cavendish tried to brush Dakota's hair away from his forehead, just to see if it looked okay, the boy flinched away from his touch. Dakota's forehead was sensitive, and it looked red and irritated.

"Is he okay?" Melissa asked as she fell back to walk with him.

"I believe so." Cavendish said. "He's upset though." That was an understatement. Dakota was still silently crying. He was clinging tightly to Cavendish's shirt, and seemed unwilling to let go, even if his life depended on it. "I'm a little confused as to why he seemed more concerned about my small cut than his head."

"Oh yeah, Milo mentioned that." Melissa grinned. "He cares about you and was worried. I think it's adorable."

Cavendish found it more concerning than anything. He still had no idea just how injured Dakota was, and the child had been more worried about his meaningless, completely harmless cut. What was really worrying Cavendish though was that Dakota was still upset about it. He seemed to be nearly traumatized about how Cavendish had accidentally cut himself, and he just didn't understand why.

What truly bothered Cavendish about this situation though was that he felt as though, somehow, Dakota did this kind of thing on a regular basis. Cavendish couldn't think of any other time when this kind of thing happened. This meant that either his feeling was just him being paranoid, or this sort of thing really had happened before, and Cavendish had never bothered to notice, and that scared him.

Cavendish had a difficult time imagining that Dakota would regularly worry about Cavendish's safety, while at the same time ignoring his own pain, which was actually worse. On the other hand, it also seemed like the exact kind of thing that Dakota would do. Cavendish just didn't know which was the case, and he hated not knowing.

Cavendish knew that this could be a potential problem, and he certainly wasn't going to be forgetting about it. First though, he needed to fix the problem at hand, and then he could worry about his partner.

Once the children were all back in the classroom Cavendish took the age regressor ray, set it to reverse, and set it off while it was aimed at the four children adults. Once Cavendish saw that they were back to normal he retreated back into the hallway and dealt with Dakota out there. His intention had been to not confuse the parents, and they would most certainly be confused to see a stranger in the room with them.

Cavendish had to put Dakota down before he re-aged him, because it would be a little awkward to be holding him when he grew back to his normal size. Dakota threw a little fit when he was forced to be away from Cavendish, but the older agent quickly activated the device before things escalated. Within just a matter of seconds, Dakota was back to normal and the whole situation had been resolved.

"Uh, Cavendish?" Dakota looked confused, which was to be expected. "What happened?"

"It's a long story." Cavendish breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered the age regressor ray. It was all over, and he could begin to pretend that this had never happened in the first place...except for the fact that Dakota's forehead still looked angry and irritated. And here Cavendish had been hoping that any sign of the injury would go away once he got back to normal. No such luck.

Dakota eyed the age regressor ray in Cavendish's hands, and then he noticed how tired Cavendish was. "Uh oh. Did something happen?"

"Well...yes." Cavendish said, because he really couldn't lie about it.

"Aw man." Dakota brought a hand to his head, and then flinched ever so slightly when he accidentally brushed the place where he had hit his head. Cavendish stiffened, expecting Dakota to ask him about why his head hurt, but he didn't say anything. Dakota just brushed it off as though it wasn't even a problem. Cavendish only knew that Dakota felt the pain because he had noticed the flinch, and he had only noticed the flinch at all because he had specifically been looking for it. If Cavendish hadn't known that Dakota had gotten hurt, he never would have even guessed.

Apparently Dakota was really good at acting like he wasn't hurt when he really was, and that scared Cavendish...a lot.

"Is everyone okay?" Dakota looked slightly guilty, because he knew, he really did, that any problems that had been caused by the age regressor ray would have been the consequence of _his_ little act of thievery.

Cavendish wanted to say that Dakota had been injured. He wanted to apologize for letting it happen. He wanted Dakota to know that he was aware that he was hurt, and he wanted him to stop pretending that he wasn't. But Cavendish held his tongue, because he was worried that Dakota would just wave off his concern and change the conversation to distract him from the situation. Cavendish liked to think that he was too focused on this problem to be easily distracted from it, but he was sure that Dakota was just as dedicated to keeping his problems to himself, and Cavendish just didn't know if he would put his focus up against Dakota's.

Cavendish already felt bad enough as it was. He was sure that he would feel even worse if he let himself be distracted when he knew that something was wrong.

"Yes." Cavendish said in a defeated tone. "Everybody's fine."

"That's good." Dakota looked so relieved, which somehow made Cavendish feel even worse. "So everything's taken care of?"

"Yes, we're all set." Cavendish said. "Now, I don't know about you, but I've had a long day," Or, at the very least, he'd had a long evening. "And I'm ready to go home."

"Sounds good." Dakota agreed. "I'm kinda tired." Even this casual made Cavendish feel more concerned. Was Dakota's fatigue because of his head injury? Did he have a concussion? Now Cavendish had to worry about that, without letting Dakota know that he was worrying about him.

Cavendish had always felt like having Dakota as a partner was a lot of work, but this was probably the moment that he felt the most concerned and overwhelmed because of his partner. Cavendish didn't know what was going on with his partner, and it bothered him.

The one thing that Cavendish _did_ know was that he had a lot of things to think about. If there was something really wrong with Dakota, and Cavendish felt like there was, then he wanted to figure out what it was. Because as annoying and frustrating as Dakota could be, he was still Cavendish's partner and friend. And if Cavendish just left things as they were, then he would be a sorry excuse for a partner indeed.

Cavendish couldn't just leave things as they were when he felt like something was wrong. He just couldn't. He may not know for sure what was going on with Dakota, but he would figure it out...he had to.

* * *

 **A/N: So, Cavendish is harder to write than Dakota is, apparently. I love Cavendish, but he's a lot more complicated of a character than I usually give him credit for. I just felt the need to write this, because** _ **we**_ **know that Cavendish cares about Dakota, but sometimes I think even he forgets that he does. So I tried to write Cavendish in such a way that shows how he's both frustrated with his partner, and intensely cares about him.**

 **And I do actually have a reason behind why I had Dakota as a child. The first and most basic reason is that the world will always need more child Dakota. The second reason though is that Dakota frequently hides his feelings and intentions, so I figured that the one way that Cavendish would notice that something was wrong with Dakota is if he is in a more vulnerable state (that's why in my stories I keep writing Dakota as tired, sick, upset, or as a child.)**


End file.
